[JohnKSa]

...walmart has nada, zip, ammo.

They are still getting shipments, it's just that they sell out within hours or minutes of when the ammunition hits the shelves.

Also, because it's now common for the stores to be sold out, more of them are having to order ammo to restock than the supply chain can reasonably support. The supply chain is designed to support "normal" levels of demand, not panic-buying.

So, not only is the ammo selling fast, but because it's selling fast everywhere (and selling out) the stores can't order enough to fully restock because there's not enough available in the supply chain to restock all the stores at once.

That, in turn, contributes to the panic. When people see that the ammo shelves are empty, they get worried about when they will be able to resupply and tend to purchase more than normal when they get a chance to buy because they think that there may not be another chance for awhile.

Are the feds buying it up?

The feds are buying ammo--they always buy ammo because they use a LOT of it. DHS, for example, runs training facilities that are used by a huge number of federal LE agents and organizations. In a recent year, DHS training facilities were used by over 70,000 federal agents from 90 different federal LE organizations.

If you think about the fact that there are something like 140,000 federal agents authorized to carry weapons and make arrests, it begins to become obvious that the federal government uses a huge amount of training and issue ammunition.

But that doesn't mean they're buying it to keep it away from us. They're buying huge amounts because they USE huge amounts.

While we're on the topic, it's worth pointing out that rumors are the gasoline that keeps the panic-buying engine running.

Are folks buying it that fast?

YES. Go ask the folks selling ammo and you get a very simple answer. As soon as they get ammo, they stock the shelves and it sells. This is why many retailers (including Wal-Mart and Academy Sports, in my area) are placing limits on how much ammo any given customer can purchase at one time.

One small online ammo seller I use received a shipment of nearly a quarter million rounds of .22LR. They enacted a 4 brick limit per purchaser to try to spread it out to keep as many of their customers happy as possible. It was all sold in less than 24 hours.

By the way, you CAN get ammunition. I went to the gun show today and there was plenty of ammunition available in all calibers. The problem is that what is available is priced very high-- that's why it's still available. The folks who sell for reasonable prices are sold out.

Basically, if you're willing to pay 70 cents a round for basic FMJ practice/plinking 9mm ammo (to use one example), you can buy all you want--or at least as much as you can afford...